Congress, White House clash over using TSA employees at border

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are clashing over the Trump administration’s move to send hundreds of Transportation Security Administration employees to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The TSA is asking federal air marshals, airport screeners and others to volunteer to support a buildup of federal agents along the border who are dealing with waves of migrants.

Rep. Debbie Lesko, an Arizona Republican, says that tapping TSA workers shows there’s a crisis on the border.

But the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said the administration is using TSA to manufacture a crisis.

Travel industry groups have expressed concern that the shift could leave airports understaffed during the peak summer season.

TSA says it can handle the job and will move fewer than 1% of its 60,000 employees to the border.